Fri 7th 0ct: A couple of questions

Maisy/Munchkin looking a lot happier now

I was at AFCD in Pokfulam today and I asked about the seven month-old chihuahua I’d taken out the other day.  She seemed to be reasonably happy at the time she was brought out from her kennel space but it had all gone downhill from there, with her foster home reporting that she was hiding, untouchable (biting) and refusing to eat.  In fact she would have been returned to our Ap Lei Chau Centre if the foster had been able to get her out from her hiding place without having her hand bitten.  I was told by the AFCD staff that she had been very scared when she had first arrived but had settled down after a while, and on asking how long she’d been there I found out it was a month!  A whole month of a seven month life is a long time.  At least I was then able to let the foster know that all the chihuahua needed was time to settle, and sure enough, she is now eating, walking round the apartment and sleeping in a proper dog bed.  As I’ve always said, leaving a dog alone and giving it space and time to sort itself out is the answer in almost all cases.  It may take a day, a week or much longer, but being patient is the answer.  None of the small “delinquents” that come to Lamma because of their behaviour problems exhibit any of these issues when they are here.  Why? Simply because they are left alone.  If they want attention and ask for it they get it, but if not, nobody bothers them.  Toddy, for example, who was moved from Ap Lei Chau recently because of his aggression is a quiet angel now.

Still at AFCD, I was told there was another chihuahua waiting to be released.  This one had made the Apple Daily headlines when it was found in an apartment with its dead owner (after two days). While there had been a lot of offers of a home for the little dog (of course),  its release still hadn’t been approved.  I asked why, since they knew the owner was dead, and I was told that the friends and relatives of the now-deceased had to be contacted to see if they wanted to have the dog.  It too has already been waiting a month.

This strange (and sad for the poor chihuahua) information got me thinking.  I am now the registered owner of maybe five hundred dogs, as there is no provision for registering a dog under the name of an organisation so all HKDR dogs are technically and legally mine.  So what would happen, I asked, if I suddenly died?  Would AFCD have to contact my relatives (in England and Australia) to see if they wanted to adopt (my) hundreds of dogs?  Would they all be taken into AFCD custody for months while the sticky issue was resolved?  The thought made me laugh, but in reality I really do wonder ……..

I have another problem looming too.  I mentioned some months back that CEDD, Slopes Department, had been round to my Lamma house and insisted that they post a notice on the wall behind my house (invisible to all but me and the dogs) about dangerous slopes.  Apart from confirming my thoughts about all Local Government Department staff being brain dead, I thought no more about it, but now their workers are busy concreting the mini slope in the house next door and it seems my own (few feet high) bank is next in line.  I’ve looked at this “dangerous slope” many times, and I can’t for the life of me see how it could possibly pose any risk whatsoever.  Still, if they can be mad enough to put up a sign that nobody can see, they can be mad enough to concrete over a very nice, natural stone wall which is doing a perfectly good job.  My problem, though, is this.  If these lunatics insist on spraying their much-loved concrete over my wall, what do I do about the dogs?   Or do I just do nothing………. what a lovely thought.